New adventures

 long nights

 braces

 new adventures in eating

 swinging for the first time

 Mermaid by Macey

 Lots of pool time

...and had to include at least one pic of Isaac....

All-County Choir Concert

Loraya has had alot of opportunitys lately to share her gift of singing.  Select 4th and 5th graders of all the elementary schools around Morgantown were asked to participate in singing in the All- County choir.  I was impressed with the few practices they had with how well they sounded.

Can you spot Loraya?

Loraya was asked to play the xylophone during one of the songs.  She was very excited to be selected!  She is sitting in the chair playing the bigger xylophone.

Of course afterward, ice cream was in order!

Happy 10th Birthday to Loraya!

A little late posting, but oh how I love this girl!

I have been beyond blessed with having Loraya in our family.  If you know her, you love her....it's that simple.

She was lucky and didn't have school on her birthday AND it was a gorgeous sunny day to boot. We celebrated by having a picnic at the park with a bunch of our friends.  A random dance party happened, which added to the fun.

 We went and saw the movie Rio 2.  When Jacob got home we opened presents and went out to dinner of Loraya's choosing.  

For her 'cake' she requested cookies and ice cream.  

Happy Birthday beautiful girl!  I love being your mom!

Quality Time

Nothing like spending some good quality family time together, don't you agree?

Christmas Eve and Christmas morning

Christmas Eve we had our friends the White's over as well as the Neilson's over.  We are thankful for friends to share the holidays with!  We ate lots of yummy food, had a white elephant gift exchange, and played Santa Bingo. Sorry I was too busy to remember to take pictures!

After our friends left we opened Christmas jammies, read Polar Express and sent the kids to bed.  When I shut the door to Loraya and Isaac's room they both squealed in delight at their excitement for the next morning.  I love these ages of my kids!

Christmas morning started at 7AM.  I told my kids they weren't allowed to wake anyone up any earlier.  Santa brought Isaac and Loraya a Kindle.  He brought Macey the Equestrian Girl dolls she had been wanting!  

Christmas day was spent playing new video games, reading new books and watching new movies.  It was a relaxing day with our little family.

Weekend Getaway

I had the opportunity to go out to DC and visit some of my college roommates.  Karena, is living in DC for a year and we had to take the opportunity to get together!  We each brought our older girls with us.  Loraya and I chatted and listened to Harry Potter on CD while driving to and from.  It was so great to enjoy the weekend with Loraya and my stay up way to late each night laughing with my friends.  I decided I'm too old to stay up until 2AM.

 Shopping with my girl!

 Pedis for everyone.

 Loraya and Kennedi, Jenner's oldest.

 We each test drove a Kia and got a $25 gift card.  Isn't everyone cute?  Jenner is due in just 6 short weeks!

These girls got along great and had so much fun staying up late and giggling.

Loves to Karena and Jenner!  Both amazing mothers and examples to me.

Thank you to Karena for hosting!  I met Karena and Jenner in the first few days of college.  They have been a huge blessing in my life.  Thank you to Jacob for taking care of things at home while I was away.

Shine on little star

Every year we look forward to going out to the Skousen's Farm for the annual hayride.  It is breathtakingly beautiful and the kids like to see how many times in one night they can ride the hayride.  It is also an easy and fun activity to invite our friends to whom are not of our faith.

I noticed at church there were a stack of flyers sitting in the foyer telling about the upcoming church activity.

Loraya took about half of them and started passing them out to who knows who.

 Neighbors, teachers, friends at school, the mailman...pretty much everyone in Morgantown has been given a flyer and been welcomed by Loraya to come to this fun ward activity.

I mentioned it to Debbie Skousen on Tuesday night that Loraya has been passing out flyers all over town and who knows if anyone of these people will show up.  I'm glad I mentioned it because this afternoon a mom of one of Loraya's friends from school called and was asking questions about the activity and is probably going to come!

This was exciting for me!

I'm proud of Loraya and I love her light that shines for all to see.  From an early age she knows who she is and wants to share the light that she has with others.